Wizard's View
by Angelbach
Summary: How would a certain best friend view the differences in Oliver Queen in the Arrow and Amazon Universe - AAA Olicity through the eyes of Thomas Merlyn - A One-shot


Title: Wizard's View

Pairing: Oliver and Felicity

Disclaimer: The characters of Oliver, Felicity, Diggle, Thomas Merlyn and others belong to CW and DC Comics.

_If you're reading Arrow and Amazon, thanks, I'm enjoying writing it. In the middle of writing of it, I suddenly got this idea to do an AU of my own AU! So straight from the top, here we go! This is actually set after the season 2 finale but will only cover the first episode roughly._

_And thanks to the marvellous Rennie75 and her Lessons Learned as she put in print of the rules we know belong with the wonderful world of Olicity._

_Further info in the A/N at the bottom, so please read._

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I died!

Short, simple and to the point, I died! But like most things around Starling City, it turned out I wasn't as dead as certain people thought me to be or were made to believe! (And believe me, you have no idea just how much of a shock it was to see my own gravestone! Now I know how Oliver felt when he saw his.)

But when it comes down to it, I think it was necessary - my supposed death that is. My alleged death sent my best friend and his blonde IT genius on the path that they should have been taking all along.

I supposed I've got you all confused now, well let me try and clear things up for you (and if I ramble, blame the delightful Ms Smoak because I've clearly been hanging around her for too long).

As it turns out, in her search for the absent Mr Queen, who had left Starling City after the funeral of his supposed dead best friend (that would be me, Thomas Merlyn by the way) for parts unknown, discovered that there had been a little bit of governmental cover-up going on – which promptly led her to do a bit of judicial information retrieving (known to you, me and Diggle as hacking).

That had her making the discovery that I was actually alive and being held in, in what they liked to call, victim protection – even Oliver found that amusing when we told him, especially as no-one could work out if I was the victim under protection or they needed protecting from – apparently for some people of the Glades I was being tarred with the same brush as my father, sins of the father and all that.

Felicity, of being Felicity as I have now come to know, immediately went about finding a way of getting me out of the limbo I was basically in and bringing me home. Of course, she also managed to cause some extremely creative chaos to do that.

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"Tommy, keep to the point." Felicity pressed the stop on the recording equipment and swung round in her chair to glare at the young man sitting on the new sofa in the new lair. At her side, the tall form of Oliver Queen suppressed a laugh, please for once that her glare was fastened on someone other than himself.

Tommy grinned, (dangerously risking Felicity's temper in the watching Roy's opinion as he mentally revised his personal lesson 8 to 'Even Oliver's super human control has its limits – there's no shame in standing behind Felicity or Oliver if it's Felicity', with special reference to lesson one – never get between Oliver and Felicity – not even if your Oliver's childhood best friend).

"Yes your royal highness, I'll do just that." That had Oliver growling at him and he quickly grew serious again – much to the amusement of both Diggle and Roy.

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To continue, all I know was that one moment I was being held in limbo, receiving medical treatment but still in limbo when all of a sudden, Walter Steele was standing in the door way of my lovely windowless room, telling me I was coming home to the Queen Mansion.

It seemed almost seconds after that, the darling Ms Smoak (_"low growl"_) and Diggle were jetting off to retrieve then currently missing Oliver Queen and then if the life as we knew hadn't already changed the first time Oliver came back from the island, it really changed when the three of them came back the second time.

I knew the moment they stepped back into the Queen Mansion, Felicity one pace in front of Oliver and his hand in the middle of her back while Diggle was on her other side that things had really changed. The Oliver that had come back from the island wore a mask that disguised his real feelings, even with me and that was even after I knew the truth about him.

(Of course the fact that I had called him a murderer and refused to talk to him may have had something to do with that as well, but hey, I'm just saying...!)

I'd like to take this opportunity to say I always knew there was something different in the way Oliver behaved to Felicity from the first moment that I saw them together. Even before the island, the old best friend was slow to trust people, especially women but this one; this tiny beautiful blonde IT genius just slipped in between all the cracks and took up her place at his side as if she had always been there.

And he deferred to her, Oliver Queen never deferred to anyone but one look from Felicity Meghan Smoak, and he actually took a step backwards, They had one word conversations just using their names (still do actually).

But when they came back from the island the second time to face the mess my stupid-ass best friend had left behind after my supposed death, the change in him was clearly obvious. It was as if he had regained something that had been lost to him in such a way he hadn't even known that it was lost and it was all focused on the tiny person of Felicity Meghan Smoak.

Even before she and Diggle had gone to the island to bring back Oliver, I knew that Felicity was a huge personality wrapped up in a tiny package but the Felicity that came back from the island at his side – now that was a whole different side of bacon – which brings me to something, Flick...

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Felicity sighed as she paused the recording again, actually resting her head against Oliver's side as she did so. Oliver ran his hand through her unusually free hair as she spoke, her voice muffled. "What Thomas?"

"Why does everyone think you are of a Jewish persuasion?"

"Because no-one would have believed me if I said was an Amazon who followed the pantheon of Olympus."

"Oh! Oh yeah, I can see that now."

Oliver covered his mouth to hide a broad grin as he heard her mutter "Numbskull!" against him. Diggle and Roy didn't even bother hiding their grins.

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And getting back to where I was before, the Felicity that came back from the island was clearly more than she ever seemed. There was a vibrancy about her that seemed to flow between her and Oliver, a kind of link that joined them (a second kind of link bounces off the rest of us on occasion when we're not irritating her – she and Roy have taken to calling it the Team Arrow vibe!)

The news that she had also spent a year on the island that had forged a different Oliver was kind of stunning at first. The fact that she was an Amazon princess (and that fact blew my mind to be honest and still does right now) and they had had their memories stolen from them by a potion given to them by her own mother was... alright I still haven't found a way to describe that bit yet. Let alone the fact that time was turned back a year to cover the fact she had even been on the island, I so don't want to go there!

So back to Olicity, (_"TOMMY!"_) it was different from the moment they arrived back in Starling City. You could tell just by looking at them, they were now true partners and Oliver had developed a new habit of touching her every time he was near her.

Of course, now that they were back, all things went to hell again in Starling City. After all, who else ends up swinging out of a window doing a Tarzan and Jane on their first day back in the office but Oliver Queen and Felicity Smoak? Only to have to go rescue his/our sister (still haven't got my head around that fact either) because she's kidnapped by the same people who forced them to do the jungle vine act!

It took a lot of talking to get Oliver back into the suit that day as well, well it took Felicity a lot of talking to get him back in green and me pointing at myself to show that I was still alive... again. (And you have no idea how much that hurts; you thinking I was a ghost, old friend _"Get on with it, Merlyn"_.)

Although I think that it also had something do with whatever it was that Felicity told him after he caught sight of the salmon ladder in front of her computer bank because I've never seen that look in his eyes before or the way he ran his hand down her arm as she sat down to find the information he needed.

{I would also like to take this opportunity to point out that the former Detective Lance also noticed the change in dynamics between our two leading characters – I always knew that guy had eyes in the back of his head when it came to Ollie and his girls, apparently he's added our Felicity that list. [_SLAP!_] Alright, I'll get back to it and owww! That hurt! _"Good!"_}

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"Before I do get back to it though..." Tommy grinned as Felicity literally rammed her finger on the mouse to pause the recording before hitting her forehead against Oliver several times.

Oliver pulled her off her feet (she had just been coming back to her chair after slapping Tommy) and onto his lap, wrapping his arms around her slender waist to ensure that she couldn't get across the new Lair to kill his best friend with her bare hands.

"And that's our cue for taking a break before someone gets hurt." Diggle murmured as he rose to his feet and stretched, "Big Belly burgers anyone?"

"And coffee, lots of coffee." Felicity's muffled voice murmured. "And choc mint ice-cream!"

Roy actually burst into laughter at that before catching the glare she sent in his direction. "I need to call the club and make sure everything's going alright." He quickly ran after the tall bodyguard.

"He's definitely learning." Oliver murmured in Felicity's ear, making her giggle slightly. He moved her slightly so that her back was now against his shoulder while he leant his chin on her's as they looked over to where Tommy was now stretched out on the sofa – and once again grinning at them. "What now?"

"I still can't get over just how well you two fit together!" He replied as he pulled a cushion under his head. "And I really cannot believe just how blind that..." A joint growl interrupted him before he could say the name. "... Beep is being."

"She's always seen what she wanted, no matter what anyone else might think; it's one of the reasons I got on the Gambit in the first place." Oliver growled as he rested his forehead against Felicity's hair for a moment. "She may have believed what Slade told her about me but the Princess, even with meeting your sister, that's information she just doesn't want to accept."

"I'm losing no sleep over it, archer-boy." Felicity replied as she ran a finger absently over his hands where they were clasped together. "Let her have her delusion for now, I'll clear it up when I'm ready to."

"You know..." Quentin Lance said absently as he entered the Lair, "That sounded remarkably like a civilised threat to me and if it is the person I think you are discussing, I'm no longer surprised."

Felicity smiled. "Dear Detective Lance, I'm a modern Amazon, we're almost always civilised these days I thought you knew that and good evening."

"Please note the 'almost' in that sentence." Tommy murmured to no-one in particular even as a tennis ball was thrown across the room at him, hitting him in the stomach. "Ow! Would you please stop hurting me?"

"Would you like the obvious answer to that or are you going to be the adult we all know you actually are these days?" Felicity threw verbally back at him even Oliver reached up to snatch the returning tennis ball out of the air.

"Yes, your highness, whatever your highness commands." Tommy replied as he mockingly bowed to her. "OWW!"

This time it wasn't the Amazon princess that threw the ball at him and Oliver had aimed for decidedly more delicate target.

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Getting back once again to where we were, the next seal on their differences came when Diggle opened that case that held the new bow (and what happened to the original one is an area I don't want to go into). It's not every day you watch your best friend examine a compound bow, say it's perfect and then grab the girl who made it for them and kiss the senses out of them.

And it's most definitely not every day when she returns the kiss and then sends her man out to take down the hoods that have captured their kid sister with a smile and a hint of royal command to be safe and to think about taking them in without killing them. Did I ever show you the picture I took of Detective Lance when he caught sight of them hanging up by their underpants? OW! Enough with the hitting already! (_"That's Detective Sergeant Lance, Merlyn!_)

Then there was the successful hold off of the delectably wicked Ms Rochev in the conference room (look, evil witch that she was, she was still a good looking woman you have to admit that! I'm not that reformed _"Growl!"_) The penultimate seal was watching the way they walked so casually back into the Lair together, hand in hand, her head resting on his bicep as if they had always walked together that way.

It was the discussion about the new name that really put the seal on the new Oliver Queen and Felicity Smoak for me, I think.

I'll admit I meant what I said that time when I found out about Oliver being the Hood and it was true, in that particular moment and time, it was the truth but truth is a changing thing, something Ms Smoak should be well aware of with her ancestry.

The Oliver Queen that came back from the island the second time was a different person again because this time he came back, soul a little tattered but no longer incomplete, his and her's memories real if a little crowded with one year being in reality a year forgotten then relived.

But there was something special about the way they stood that evening, Oliver holding the green-tipped arrow in his hands while Felicity stood with one hand resting on his shoulder yet at his side as his equal. It was the way she said his name but made it a whole conversation as he moved his arm around her waist and they looked at the arrow together.

It was the Arrow and his Amazon – and they are heroes.

A Beginning

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_So that's this one shot done. If I decide to follow this up after I finish Arrow and Amazon, it will be more in that style this._

_This one was just my way of possible having Tommy survive the earthquake in a credible scenario and I think it works so I'm going to mark this one as complete now. (Plus the fact it was bugging me so much I had to write it just so I could go back and concentrate on AAA.)_

_So I look forward to reading your views and whether or not this is something you would like to see a lot more of ;op_


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